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Heidi Schumacher, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine and a member of Larner’s Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP) team, has been awarded an implementation grant from the �պ����� Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships to leverage cross-sector partnerships to advance health and educational equity across rural Vermont. The program will provide learning opportunities and curated online resources for Vermont’s educational and health practitioners regarding relevant data, evidence-based interventions, and bright spots from Vermont’s rural communities; in addition, four rural health care/school dyads across Vermont will be funded to implement school attendance screenings in primary care, and to build or enhance cross-sector teams to prevent and respond to missed school in the community. 

This $250,000 partnership grant (partnership grants are intended to set in motion more expansive partnership initiatives that will outlive the Leahy Institute funding) is part of a total of nearly $2.4M in grants announced by the Leahy Institute to fuel partnerships between �պ����� and organizations throughout Vermont with the goal of addressing pressing challenges in the state.

For Schumacher’s project, �պ�����’s Larner College of Medicine and Catamount Community Schools Collaborative are partnering with VCHIP and other organizations to create new tools to help educators and health professionals more effectively support youth well-being.

Schumacher was recently interviewed by WCAX-TV to discuss her contention that chronic school absenteeism is a public health issue and can be seen as a pediatric vital sign, indicating an unmet health or social need. Leveraging health care as a partner to schools to address family barriers to regular attendance, and elevating the assets and strengths of rural communities in doing so, is critical to enhance child and family outcomes, Schumacher states.

An innovative new minimally invasive heart valve repair procedure called tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) brings leading-edge cardiac care closer to home for older patients in Vermont and northern New York—and �պ����� Medical Center is the only hospital in the state that offers it.

A person’s chance of heart valve disease increases significantly with age, according to the National Institutes of Health, and a significant number of older patients with severe conditions go untreated due to the risks of conventional surgical procedures. Interventional cardiologist Rony Lahoud, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the Larner College of Medicine, says, “[TEER] is opening up a whole new set of options for people … who struggle to live a full life. To watch people go home the very next day and immediately feel a difference—that’s the kind of outcome you aspire to have.”

Lahoud and his interventional cardiology partner Tanush Gupta, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, along with advanced imaging cardiologists Trace Barrett, M.D., and Peter Van Buren, M.D., associate professor of medicine, performed the first tricuspid TEER at �պ����� Medical Center last year. Lahoud expects the tricuspid TEER program to grow to serve more patients in Vermont and northern New York, cementing an innovative treatment option locally for a historically difficult-to-treat form of heart valve disease.

In January, the Larner community gathered to celebrate at the Class of 2027 Public Health Poster Session, which engaged attendees in lively discussion around the many public health issues addressed in more than a dozen projects. With help from a longstanding college partner, United Way of Northwest Vermont, medical students in the required Public Health Projects course are paired with local organizations to address public health needs. These partners include Special Olympics Vermont, Pride Center of Vermont, Champlain Community Services, United Way of Northwest Vermont, Vermont Department of Health, American Public Health Association, and more.

This year’s projects explored many of Vermont’s most timely health and social needs among people of all ages, in many areas connecting public health and health care: high school emergency preparedness, using AI in health care, mental health professional capacity and training needs, antibiotic stewardship, rural dental capacity, self-identification of social isolation and loneliness, and much more. Projects included lessons about health policy and advocacy, community health needs, challenges in addressing social determinants of health among all Vermonters, connecting medicine, health care, and public health, and identifying unique health needs in our rural communities.

Both Larner Dean Richard L. Page, M.D., and Associate Dean for Public Health and Health Policy Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., addressed the attendees during the event. “Many of the projects that you’ve done add to our ability to take a piece of a very challenging problem and do something about it right here in Vermont,” Carney said.

Public Health Projects, a required course in the Vermont Integrated Curriculum at the Larner College of Medicine, teaches medical students to apply the principles and science of public health while working to improve the health of the community. Each year, 16 groups of second-year medical students are matched to 16 community projects identified by local community agencies. Using practical research methods, students work together with faculty and community agency mentors to find creative ways to translate science into practice.

Read more about the Class of 2027 Public Health Projects poster session

The Gund Institute for Environment at �պ����� has announced a $100,000 Joint Catalyst Award for a research project led by Principal Investigator Christine Vatovec, Ph.D., M.S., research assistant professor of biochemistry at the Larner College of Medicine. The project will develop tools and resources for primary care clinicians to address patients experiencing climate change–related health challenges in northern New England.

Vatovec is an environmental health social scientist who studies the interconnections between human health and planetary health. She serves as the planetary health lead at �պ�����’s Osher Center for Integrative Health, a researcher in the Larner College of Medicine, a clinical assistant professor in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and a lecturer in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. A team of co-investigators from �պ�����, MaineHealth, and Northern New England CO-OP Practice and Community Based Research Network, whose fields of practice include scientific and medical research as well as primary healthcare provision, will join Vatovec in this work.

The Gund Institute for Environment at �պ����� is a research center dedicated to understanding and tackling the world’s most critical environmental challenges. With over 250 scholars in Vermont and across the world, the Institute brings together a network of internationally recognized researchers from diverse disciplines, including the natural and social sciences, business, health, technology, engineering, and the humanities.

Read more about the 2024 Gund Institute Catalyst Award winners

A recent paper published in Nature Communications titled “” co-authored by cellular, molecular, and biomedical sciences Ph.D. candidate Cameron Cordero and his advisor, Steven Roberts, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, and colleagues has been included on the journal’s  in the cancer category. Cordero’s primary research interest is computational analysis of DNA damage and repair in cancer.

“Cam’s paper was just picked as one of the best cancer biology papers published this year in Nature Communications,” Roberts said, noting, “He also won a big award for his talk at a conference on this.”

The (SRNT) has announced Elias Klemperer, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and psychological sciences at the Larner College of Medicine, associate director of the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, and co-director of the Education and Outreach Core at the Center on Rural Addiction, as the recipient of the for 2025 in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the field of nicotine and tobacco research.

A behavioral scientist and licensed clinical psychologist whose research broadly falls within tobacco regulatory science and tobacco control, Klemperer primarily focuses on dual use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes, nicotine reduction, and interventions for people who are not ready to quit smoking.

SRNT is a scientific society that provides a forum for the publication, presentation, and discussion of nicotine and tobacco-related research. The annual Jarvik–Russell Early Career Award is named after pre-eminent tobacco researchers Murray Jarvik, a premier researcher on the effects of drugs on learning and behavior, and Michael Russell, a psychiatrist and public health scientist who made the study of the interacting pharmacological and psychological determinants of tobacco dependence his life’s work.

�պ����� Medical Center (�պ�����MC) and �պ����� Health Network–Alice Hyde Medical Center (AHMC) have welcomed new members to their respective boards of trustees. �պ�����MC recently appointed veteran clinical leader and educator Donald Mathews, M.D., professor of anesthesiology, and AHMC has appointed Ramsey Herrington, M.D., associate professor and chair of emergency medicine at the Larner College of Medicine and chair of emergency medicine at the �պ����� Health Network.

Mathews joined the �պ����� Medical Center in 2010 as director of the Anesthesiology Residency Program and led the planning process that incorporated primary care internal medicine into the academic Department of Medicine. He served as chair of anesthesiology at Larner from 2017 to 2020 and has also served as a special advisor to the president and chief executive officer of the �պ����� Health Network Medical Group.

Herrington joined the �պ����� Health Network in 2006 as an emergency department (ED) physician. As chair of the network’s Department of Emergency Medicine, he has expanded the department’s clinical mission and built an academic program of teaching and research. He has played a critical role in physician recruitment across the �պ����� Health Network and also oversaw the development of a shared ED staffing model that brings physicians from across the health system to practice at hospitals in both northern New York and Vermont.